Discover 8 artists from Turkey

Who would have thought that a simple splash of colour on paper was once considered a revolutionary act In Turkey, where East and West meet not only geographically but also artistically, the first modern watercolour painting was created by a sultan himself - and not in a quiet room, but as a political statement. Sultan Abdülmecid I, a passionate painter, took up brush and colour himself in the 19th century to introduce Western painting to the Ottoman court. His works, often delicate landscapes and intimate portraits, were more than mere decoration: they marked the beginning of a new era in which painting gained a foothold as an independent art form in Turkey.



Imagine you are standing in an Istanbul studio that smells of turpentine and paper. Sunlight falls through high windows onto a table on which sketches, gouaches and photographs are piled up. Here, between the Bosphorus and the Marmara, the colours of the city merge into vibrant compositions: the bright blue of the domes, the rich red of the carpets, the gold of the setting sun. Turkish painting is a kaleidoscope of tradition and modernity, of miniature and impressionism, of Orient and Occident. The artists who create this world are border crossers: Osman Hamdi Bey, for example, whose famous "The Turtle Breeder" is not just a painting, but a subtle social critique. His detailed oil paintings combine the precision of Ottoman miniatures with the light and perspective of European painting - a bridge that still fascinates today.



But Turkish art history is not only characterised by big names. In the 1930s, for example, when the young republic was searching for new forms of expression, experimental prints were created in the studios of Ankara and Istanbul that played with Western avant-gardes and yet took up unmistakably Anatolian motifs. Photography, once marvelled at as a "magical technique", was used by artists such as Othmar Pferschy to capture the modern face of Turkey: Street scenes, portraits, the pulsating life between tradition and new beginnings. And the motif of travelling appears again and again - as a longing, as a search for identity, as a reflection of one's own history. Turkish art is a living mosaic that is constantly being reassembled. Anyone looking at an art print from Turkey today is not just holding a picture in their hands, but a piece of living history that tells of change, diversity and creative power.